Travels Inward and Out

Max Boot on Who’s An American

Max Boot is a conservative scholar, although he’s never been a Trump supporter. Boot came to the United States as an immigrant six year old, speaking no English. For more than 40 years, he told Fareed Zakaria, he’s felt completely American. Now, given Trump’s rhetoric, and the prominent views of Bannon and Miller in the Trump administration, Boot is questioning his welcome in this country. His sense of security, of belonging, has been rattled. He’s white, which checks one of the Trump-Bannon-Miller boxes. But Boot is Jewish, and his birthplace is Russia. Those two, in a Trumpian world, make him suspect.

No matter what Trump-Bannon-Miller say, we are a nation of immigrants; that has always been our strength. No matter how many “Proud Anti-Muslim Supporter” T-shirts Trump supporters wear, we are a country that has always stood for religious freedom and the right to worship as one wishes.

When I listen to Max Boot, I shake my head in deep regret at what our country is becoming.